Temporary central skate park inspiring long-term vision for prime location

The city has installed a temporary skatepark in downtown Edmonton, but skaters say it's not right for all skill levels. CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson has

A temporary skate park on the east side of downtown is teaching the City of Edmonton lots about what the community needs.

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The park at 96 Street and Jasper Avenue is more sparse than most but features incomparable views of the North Saskatchewan River valley and fills a dead zone; of 11 permanent skate parks in Edmonton, the closest to downtown is in Capilano.

“This location is remarkable. It really is remarkable. The downtown core certainly needs more things like this,” said Denise Biziaev, one of the founders of the Tigers Skate Club, a skateboard club for girls, women and gender-diverse people.

“I’d love to bring my kids here. I’d love to bring our club out here.”

But she doesn’t. Although a good size, the park, she says, is awkwardly furnished and largely inaccessible to beginners.

“The width of some of these ramps, they’re actually quite narrow. So when you think of a beginner that wants to come into a space feeling welcome, to utilize what’s here, this becomes a little bit overbearing,” she pointed out as an example.

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An urban designer at the city says this is due to the spontaneous creation of the park last summer.

“What we’re trying to do here is obviously temporary. We’re trying to activate some underutilized spaces in the downtown, which there are a lot of.... We know that there’s a shortage of skate infrastructure in the center of Edmonton. We had these (ramps) in storage in a city lot, and so we saw this location as a great opportunity to use existing resources and activate this space,” Jane Handa explained in an interview.

The project didn’t cost the city anything since it already owned the equipment and the land is public.

The hope is that the temporary park proves to be a “catalyst for redevelopment.”

“Just making people aware that this space exists, that is on the edge of downtown, and it’s amazing. And maybe in the future we can build on it,” Handa said.

“It’s a good idea.… Other than that, it’s a waste of space,” a passing skater, Casey Hayman, told CTV News Edmonton.

“It doesn’t get used a whole bunch, but it does get used.”

Biziaev believes the location has a lot of potential as a skate park and has been meeting with the city to discuss what could be done in the long term. She hopes the city expands the conversation to other groups, like BMX riders and roller skaters, who would also use the infrastructure.

“It’s a little bit hard to imagine where those conversations can go when it comes to funding, but right now, I am really grateful to hear that they’re open to us building things out,” she said.

“Knowing that we’re looking to activate more of the downtown core, it would be so beneficial to have a space like this.… There would be so much that would be contributing to the vivaciousness of our city.”

Handa said she has learned a lot about the skate community since starting the project.

“We’re going to do what we can over the next few years to bring some more activity, whether it’s improvements to the skate ramps or other improvements that we could make, tactical improvements that are low cost, until maybe some some larger investments are made.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson